The Athens Post

The Great Polar Ocean.—At the last meeting of the London Geographical Society, Lieut. Osborne, a member of the British arctic expeditions, argued, at some length, in support of the existence of a great Polar Ocean. He said that in Wellington Channel he had observed immense numbers of whales running out from under the ice, a proof that they had been to water and come to water, for every one knew they must have room to blow. He further said that there were almost constant flights of ducks and geese from the northward, another proof of water in that direction, since these birds found their food only in such water. He added, that it was his deliberate opinion, from observations made on the spot, that whales passed up Wellington channel into a northern sea. In reference to the abundance of animal life in the latitude of this supposed Polar Sea, he remarked that while on the southern side of Lancaster Sound he never saw game enough to keep his dog. Melville Island, one hundred and fifty miles to the northward, abounded in deer and musk oxen. It was thus clear, he continued, that animal life did not depend on latitude, but increased, if anything, after passing the seventieth degree. Moreover, while in Baffin's Bay the tide made for the southward coming from the Atlantic, in Barrow's straits it made for the northward, which could only be explained on the hypothesis of a sea in that direction.